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RECORDS RETENTION & MANAGEMENT FOR GOVERNMENTAL ENTITIES Issues and Concerns in the Technological World

Texas State Library & Archives Commission (TSLAC) • History: • The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has a long history, dating back to the Republic of Texas. In 1835, a settler first proposed a library for the Republic of Texas, though no action was taken until 1839, when a “national library” was established. In the same year, the Republic of Texas’ archives were moved from Houston to the new capital of Austin. With fears of Mexican invasion in 1842, the Republic’s archives were ordered to be moved back to Houston (leading to the Archives War). The Texas Library and Historical Commission was created in 1909, and it was the first time the Texas State Library and Texas State Archives are located in one agency. Since then there have been numerous milestones for the agency including the following: • 1947: The first records management program is established. • 1959: The Texas Historical Commission is created. • 1961: The completion of the new State Archives and Library Building. • 1989: The Local Government Records Act is passed, allowing the State Library to develop standards and provide assistance for records management programs for approximately 8800 local government/county offices in Texas. • 2003: The number of commissioners is increased by the Texas Legislature to seven. • 2007: Sunset bill reauthorized the Texas State Library and Archives Commission for 12 years. Source: Texas State Library and Archives Commission, The History of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, https://www.tsl.texas.gov/agency/history.html.

TSLAC Organizational Structure • The Texas State Library and Archives Commission is both the official name of the agency as well as the agency’s governing board. There are seven members on the agency’s governing board, each of whom is appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. The members of the governing board serve staggered 6 year terms, and they generally convene to meet five times per year. The duties of the governing board include the following: • Appoint and supervise Director and Librarian and Assistant State Librarian • Review and approve strategic plans, appropriation requests, operating budgets, internal audit documents, employment and management policies, etc. of the State Library • Review and adopt rules for administering legislative mandates of the State Library Source: Texas State Library and Archives Commission, About Our Commission, https://www.tsl.texas.gov/agency/commission/index.html.

One of the duties of the governing board is to appoint and supervise the Director and Librarian and Assistant State Librarian, which are the Executive Offices for the agency. The Executive Offices in turn supervises the following six Divisions of the agency: •Administrative Services •Information Resources Technologies •State & Local Records Management •Archives & Information Services •Library Development and Networking •Talking Book Program Source: Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Our Current Organizational Chart (FY2013) https://www.tsl.texas.gov/agency/orgchart.html.

Did You Know? Due to its extensive history, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission’s resources include the following: • Copies of bills/resolutions introduced from the first Congress of the Republic of Texas (1836-1972) • Legislative, executive, judicial, and military records (including official records of many Texas leaders) • Audio recordings of senate committee meetings and floor debates (1972-2001) • Digital audio recordings of senate committee meetings and floor debates (1971-1978) and Senate Bill 1 • Texas session laws Source: Guide to Texas Legislative Information, Texas State Library, http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/gtli/leginfo/serv_txlib.html.

TSLAC - Authority to Establish Retention Schedules and Enforcement • The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has the authority, through Texas Government Code Section 441.158, to develop retention schedules for government entities. In fact, one of the duties of the Director and Librarian is to “prepare and distribute free of charge to records management officers of affected local governments the records retention schedules for each type of local government, including a schedule for records common to all types of local government.” (Tex. Govt. Code Section 441.158(a)) • The Commission then adopts the retention schedule for local governments by rule. (Tex. Govt. Code Section 441.158(a))

TSLAC Authority (cont’d) The term “Local governments” has been defined in the Texas Government Code, Chapter 441, Libraries and Archives, as “a county, including all district and precinct offices of a county, municipality, public school district, appraisal district, or any other special-purpose district or authority.” (Tex. Govt. Code Section 441.151(7)) The same definition is in Section 201.003(7), Local Government Code.

Definitions Section 201.003, Local Gov’t Code: (1) "Commission" means the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. (2) "Custodian" means the appointed or elected public officer who by the state constitution, state law, ordinance, or administrative policy is in charge of an office that creates or receives local government records. (3) "Designee" means an employee of the commission designated by the director and librarian as provided by Section 441.167, Government Code. (4) "Director and librarian" means the executive and administrative officer of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. (5) "Essential record" means any local government record necessary to the resumption or continuation of government operations in an emergency or disaster, to the re-creation of the legal and financial status of the government, or to the protection and fulfillment of obligations to the people of the state. (6) "Governing body" means the court, council, board, commission, or other body established or authorized by law to govern the operations of a local government. In those instances in which authority over an office or department of a local government is shared by two or more governing bodies or by a governing body and the state, the governing body, for the purposes of this subtitle only, is the governing body that provides most of the operational funding for the office or department. (7) "Local government" means a county, including all district and precinct offices of a county, municipality, public school district, appraisal district, or any other special-purpose district or authority.

Definition – Local Government Records Section 201.003 (8): "Local government record" means any document, paper, letter, book, map, photograph, sound or video recording, microfilm, magnetic tape, electronic medium, or other information recording medium, regardless of physical form or characteristic and regardless of whether public access to it is open or restricted under the laws of the state, created or received by a local government or any of its officers or employees pursuant to law, including an ordinance, or in the transaction of public business. The term does not include: (A) extra identical copies of documents created only for convenience of reference or research by officers or employees of the local government; (B) notes, journals, diaries, and similar documents created by an officer or employee of the local government for the officer's or employee's personal convenience; (C) blank forms; (D) stocks of publications; (E) library and museum materials acquired solely for the purposes of reference or display; (F) copies of documents in any media furnished to members of the public to which they are entitled under Chapter 552, Government Code, or other state law; or (G) any records, correspondence, notes, memoranda, or documents, other than a final written agreement described by Section 2009.054(c), Government Code, associated with a matter conducted under an alternative dispute resolution procedure in which personnel of a state department or institution, local government, special district, or other political subdivision of the state participated as a party, facilitated as an impartial third party, or facilitated as the administrator of a dispute resolution system or organization.

Definitions (cont’d) 201.003, Local Gov’t Code: (9) "Office" means any office, department, division, program, commission, bureau, board, committee, or similar entity of a local government. (10) "Permanent record" or "record of permanent value" means any local government record for which the retention period on a records retention schedule issued by the commission is given as permanent. (11) "Record" means a local government record. (12) "Records control schedule" means a document prepared by or under the authority of a records management officer listing the records maintained by a local government or an elective county office, their retention periods, and other records disposition information that the records management program in each local government or elective county office may require. (13) "Records management" means the application of management techniques to the creation, use, maintenance, retention, preservation, and disposal of records for the purposes of reducing the costs and improving the efficiency of recordkeeping. The term includes the development of records control schedules, the management of filing and information retrieval systems, the protection of essential and permanent records, the economical and space-effective storage of inactive records, control over the creation and distribution of forms, reports, and correspondence, and the management of micrographics and electronic and other records storage systems. (14) "Records management officer" means the person identified under Section 203.001 or designated under Section 203.025 as the records management officer. (15) "Records retention schedule" means a document issued by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission under authority of Subchapter J, Chapter 441, Government Code, establishing mandatory retention periods for local government records. (16) "Retention period" means the minimum time that must pass after the creation, recording, or receipt of a record, or the fulfillment of certain actions associated with a record, before it is eligible for destruction.

Destruction of Records • Section 202.001, Local Government Code: • a) A local government record may be destroyed if: (1) the record is listed on a records control schedule accepted for filing by the director and librarian as provided by Section 203.041 and either its retention period has expired or it has been microfilmed or stored electronically in accordance with the requirements of Chapters 204 and 205; (2) the record appears on a list of obsolete records approved by the director and librarian as provided by Section 203.044; or (3) a destruction request is filed with and approved by the director and librarian as provided by Section 203.045 for a record not listed on an approved control schedule. • (b) The following records may be destroyed without meeting the conditions of Subsection (a): (1) records the destruction or obliteration of which is directed by an expunction order issued by a district court pursuant to state law; and (2) records defined as exempt from scheduling or filing requirements by rules adopted by the commission or listed as exempt in a records retention schedule issued by the commission.

Litigation & Open Records Requests Section 202.002, Local Government Code: • (a) Regardless of any other provision of this subtitle or rules adopted under it, a local government record the subject matter of which is known by the custodian to be in litigation may not be destroyed until the litigation is settled. • (b) Regardless of any other provision of this subtitle or rules adopted under it, a local government record subject to a request under Chapter 552, Government Code, may not be destroyed until the request is resolved.

Method of Destruction Section 202.003, Local Government Code: • (a) A local government record may be destroyed by burning, shredding, pulping, or burial in a landfill or by sale or donation for recycling purposes except as provided by Subsection (b). • (b) Records to which public access is restricted under Chapter 552, Government Code, or other state law may be destroyed only by burning, pulping, or shredding. • (c) A local government that sells or donates records for recycling purposes shall establish procedures for ensuring that the records are rendered unrecognizable as local government records by the recycler. • (d) The director and librarian may approve other methods of destruction that render the records unrecognizable as local government records.

Retention Schedules Applicable to LCRA The Lower Colorado River Authority is subject to four of the schedules: • GR - Records Common to All Local Governments; • PS - Records of Public Safety Agencies • PW - Records of Public Works and other Government Services • UT - Records of Utility Services

Application of Retention Policies • LCRA’s Information and Records Department oversees the LCRA Records Management Program established in LCRA policy. • Information and Records staff assist employees with classifying, managing, storing and appropriately disposing of the information created in LCRA’s day-to-day business operations. • The mandates for Information and Records are provided by state law, Board policy and retention schedule, regulatory obligations and sound business practices.

TSLAC Enforcement “The Director and Librarian may designate employees of the commission to act as deputies in the approval or disapproval or acceptance or rejection for filing of any records control schedule, destruction authorization request, electronic storage authorization request, or other statutory filing required by Subtitle C, Title 6, Local Government Code, or rules adopted under it.” (Tex. Govt. Code Section 441.167)

•Additionally, the Director and Librarian has the authority under Local Government Code Section 203.050 to inspect the permanent records of local governments. •Section 203.050(a) expressly states: “The Director and Librarian or the authorized representative of the director and librarian is entitled to inspect in the offices of any local government or elected county officer the condition of any permanent record to which access by the director and librarian or the representative is not restricted by law.” •If the local government has failed to properly preserve or handle permanent records, then the local government is notified by the director and librarian. If after being notified the required measures to preserve the record have not been taken, then the director and librarian may demand and receive delivery of the permanent record or make copies for preservation purposes.

Enforcement (cont’d) It is a Class A misdemeanor if an officer or an employee of a local government “knowingly or intentionally” destroys or alienates local government records in contravention to Subtitle C (Records provisions applying to more than one type of local government) or intentionally fails to deliver records to a successor in office. (Tex. Local Gov. Code Section 202.008)

Issues and Concerns (cont’d) • Authorization for Destruction is not a heavy metal band • AFD Process for hard copies o Establish process o Relatively easy (stop laughing) to track what is up for destruction • AFD process for electronic copies o Process needs to be established to include all storage and platforms such as EDMS, SharePoint, Excel, cloud storage o Can you establish tickler system in each to identify when an electronic record has met retention?

Statue of Texas hero Angelina Eberly in downtown Austin, Texas. This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. Information from its description page there is shown below. Commons is a freely licensed media file repository. You can help. On October 18, 1839, President Mirabeau B. Lamar and his cabinet dined in her tavern and his successor, Sam Houston, resided at Eberly House rather than the presidential mansion. Jacob Eberly died in 1841. In December 1842, Houston ordered the secret removal of the archives of the Republic to safekeeping in Washington-on-the-Brazos. Mrs. Eberly, realizing that the symbols of national government were being removed from the city, fired a six-pound cannon into the General Land Office Building, arousing the town to what they considered theft. The ensuing conflict became known as the Archive War, which was won by the Austinites, preserving Austin as capital of Texas and keeper of the archives. (Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization)

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